PLM Solutions Provider in Retail & CPG: Facilitating the Transition from a Legacy PLM System to a Modern, Cloud-based Microservices Architecture

PLM Solutions Provider in Retail & CPG:

Implementing a Cloud-based PLM Platform with Infrastructure Modernization

Industry: HiTech

Delivery Center: India

Industry Context

In the competitive landscape of product lifecycle management (PLM) speed and quality are paramount. PLM solutions empower companies to launch new products and features faster while maintaining quality and regulatory compliance. In today’s market dynamics, where consumer preferences evolve rapidly and supply chain transparency is non-negotiable, the ability to expedite product launches is pivotal for retail businesses.

Client Challenge

Our client, a pioneer in PLM solutions for the retail industry, aimed to transition from its legacy architecture to a modern, cloud-based platform to streamline manual deployment processes, expedite onboarding, and deploy advanced PLM functionality to specific customers. With its legacy system, manual IT processes dragged initial rollout timelines. Upgrades required dedicated developer weeks, delaying immediate access to new features. Lacking an accessible infrastructure, customers had no self-service controls to scale capacity with seasonal order cycles. Modern microservices architecture was essential, but the existing platform contained too much technical debt accrued over decades. Moreover, managing huge infrastructure resources reduced our client's ability to deliver platform enhancements rapidly.

Approach

Recognizing the challenges posed by the legacy PLM platform, Encora identified AWS as the appropriate cloud platform for this client, given AWS’s reliable infrastructure and elastic scalability essential for driving innovation, cost reduction, and rapid deployment. Encora facilitated cloud migration and infrastructure modernization for the client through:

Product Management: Conducted a thorough analysis of product requirements to devise a strategic roadmap and integrate features to maximize client value. Ensured every aspect of the product aligned with the client's vision and objectives. Leveraged AWS's computational resources, including EC2, RDS, and Application Load Balancers to meet the client’s requirements. Used Terraform to execute various Amazon APIs for on-demand provisioning, scalability, security, and robustness.

Cloud Architecture & Engineering: Architected a highly scalable, resilient, and secure PLM platform on AWS. Leveraged proven solutions to ensure the architecture met the client’s needs and optimized the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for long-term efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Product Modernization: Transitioned from a monolithic to a microservices architecture through containerization in alignment with DevSecOps practices, developing a SaaS solution that included PLM services and cloud-basefunctionalities like image processing and PDF printing. This strategic move enhanced flexibility, accelerated release velocity, and fortified resilience, reflecting a forward-looking approach in sync with contemporary development practices.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Executed Encora’s iterative DevSecOps methodology, encompassing thorough assessment, prototyping, infrastructure deployment, and robust Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

AWS Services

Amazon EC2

Amazon RDS

Load Balancer - Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Amazon 53

Amazon SQS

Results

Encora's cloud expertise, combined with AWS’ reliable and elastic infrastructure, enabled the client to reduce costs, drive innovation faster, and provide a future-proof platform to outpace competitors. Automated provisioning enabled instant scalability, while the resilient architecture with automated failover fortified reliability and uptime. Further, accelerated feature release velocity allowed for continuous innovation. The AWS cloud migration and modernization initiative delivered below tangible business results and operational excellence: